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LONDON -- Three quick thoughts on Manchester City's 3-0 win over Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
1. Man City secure Guardiola's first trophy in England
The quadruple may have gone, but Manchester City remain on course for a treble, with Pep Guardiola securing his first trophy in English football with a comfortable 3-0 Carabao Cup final victory against Arsenal at Wembley.
While League One outfit Wigan were able to embarrass City in the FA Cup, knocking the Premier League leaders out at the fifth-round stage through a combination of work rate, belief and luck, Arsenal produced one of their worst displays of the season as they failed to end Arsene Wenger's ongoing wait to win this competition.
Mistakes at the back were only part of the problem for the Gunners, with Sergio Aguero catching out Shkodran Mustafi for the first City goal.
But while Arsenal were back to their passionless worst, City cruised to victory and displayed the quality and composure that they will need if they're to add the Champions League title to this and the Premier League crown that is already all but theirs.
Aguero's goal, followed by second-half strikers from Vincent Kompany and David Silva, secured the win ahead of Thursday's league game against the same opposition at the Emirates.
But while City will face bigger tests on their treble chase between now and May, winning the first trophy is always a key moment, and there can be no accusations of Guardiola's team being chokers after bagging their first piece of silverware this season.
If they make it to the Champions League final in Kiev on May 26, this victory at Wembley could give City a significant psychological edge on the biggest night of all.
2. Kompany upstages Aubameyang at both ends of the pitch
Kompany's selection at the heart of Manchester City's defence against Arsenal could have been deemed as a bold tactic by Guardiola due to the injury-prone captain having to face up to Arsenal's £55.5 million January signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
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Kompany, one of the best ever Premier League defenders, has lost a yard of pace with his catalogue of injuries and there is a constant fear of the Belgian being cut down whenever he is up against a player quicker than him. Aubameyang has pace to burn, but at Wembley, the former Borussia Dortmund forward did not showcase his qualities and he allowed Kompany to dominate him.
The Gabon international could argue that his disrupted season at Dortmund has left him short of full fitness, even though he has now been at Arsenal for a month, but it was his movement and decision-making that really let him down against City. Aubameyang would only run in straight lines, barely straying from the central third of the pitch, making it easy for Kompany to keep him quiet.
The Arsenal striker could never get away from his marker and, on the odd occasion that he had the ball within sight of goal, he failed to take advantage. His silly foul on Claudio Bravo in the second half, when the City keeper was stranded outside his penalty area, emphasised Aubmeyang's poor contribution.
Kompany, though, rolled back the years to keep his man quiet and also score a decisive second goal for City, which sealed the Carabao Cup final. He will not have expected to have had such a comfortable afternoon against a striker with such a lofty reputation.
3. Keane wrong on Wilshere: he's just average
Roy Keane has always talked like he used to tackle -- with bite -- and his midweek comments about Jack Wilshere being the "most overrated player on the planet" could have been risky ahead of the Carabao Cup final. After all, Wilshere could have used the game to inspire Arsenal to glory and silence former Manchester United captain Keane at the same time.
With this being Wilshere's 27th first-team appearance of the season, all of those previous excuses about his lack of match fitness no longer applied, so this was the perfect opportunity for the 26-year-old to prove he is still a player of note.
Yet while Keane was wrong to suggest Wilshere is over-hyped on the basis that nobody actually hypes him up anymore, the Irishman had a point when questioning why the Arsenal man continues to be seen as some kind of missing link for club and country. Wilhere has talent in that he can find a pass and keep the ball, but this game showed that he can no longer make a difference against high-quality opponents.
Quite simply, he is too slow, both with the ball at his feet and without it, to worry a team of Manchester City's quality. It is why England manager Gareth Southgate is dubious about calls for Wilshere to be handed a World Cup chance this summer.
Against the likes of Manchester City, or indeed Germany, Brazil or France in Russia, Wilshere is simply unable to measure up. He is merely an average player in an average team.